What are the potential legal ramifications for the whistleblower?
No more Facebook for her.
Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs
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Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs
#72Now do the same for CNN, Fox News and every other sophisticated media company who have all created Skinner boxes to get more eyeballs. The entire system needs a hard examination.
I suspect the reaction from a lot of companies is going to be to lock down internal documents under a need-to-know security model.
My tinfoil theory about the outage yesterday is that it was done on purpose, as a way to create an opportunity to "hide" as many internal documents as possible without anyone noticing.
Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not really an "angle", she worked with a whistleblower protection organization and she specifically gave these documents to the SEC, filing 8 complaints with the regulatory organization. All of that communication is protected. I don't know what the legal implications for leaking to the press are, but that's where her exposure is.
Her bigger risk is probably the employment angle. Hard to picture hiring this person except if you're 100% certain your company's behavior aligns with her morals, and you can't find anyone else. Even for people who generally agree with her view on Facebook employing her presents a pretty serious known risk at this point.
Oh, she doesn’t work in tech now. Her work will now involve television interviews and book-signing tours. From that jumping off point, she’ll be able to do what she likes.
Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs
#74“Whistleblower” - with the heaviest use of air quotes.
Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs
#75What are the potential legal ramifications for the whistleblower?
I don't think it is what you are getting at, but she may be entitled to financial compensation if Facebook is fined as a result of her whistleblowing.
> Whistleblower awards can range from 10-30% of the money collected when the monetary sanctions exceed $1 million.
Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs
#76There is something that doesn't sit right with me about the whistleblower. Yes, she is a data scientist which gives her many many extra points. But, she was a PM for 2 years in FAANG. Her actual scope of the what was going on in FB as a huge org, as she's trying to comment on (the "I want to fix FB" quotes from 60 minutes) Everyone I know who works in FAANG, FB specifically, and PMs even more specifically, really hav…
> Everyone I know who works in FAANG, FB specifically, and PMs even more specifically, really have little idea of whats going on in the bigger picture That's exactly the thing about the banality of evil, any individual person working on some small subsystem or component of something in a FAANG, to them it might not immediately be apparent that what they're doing is enabling the corrosion of democracy and discourse. A…
You just compared a social media company to a weapons manufacturer.
Elsewhere, I see comparisons to cigarettes, oxycontin, gambling.
It is easy to see how one might think Facebook to be evil if they are constantly bombarded with these false equivalencies.
Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs
#77I think a lot of people are choosing to ignore that a lot of companies have done things in the past that were not illegal at the time of action. However, those actions were later decided to be made illegal because the behavior was deemed to be antithetical to our values.
For example, Standard Oil did not break any laws in its ruthless consolidation of the nascent oil industry. In fact, it exploited the law to allow it to grow into the monstrosity that it eventually became. In response, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890 which subsequently prevented the actions that Standard Oil had used to consolidate the market.
There should be no question, that what FB is doing here, while not illegal, is highly dubious ethically.
Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs
#78What concrete information has been revealed that implicates Facebook in illegal behavior? How does the "whistleblower"'s stated desires wrt goverment-mandated moderation standards differ from those articulated by representatives of the company itself? Such a framework would shift liability away from the company, possibly reduce their moderation load, and create a significant barrier for entry for potential competitor…
What I don't understand is how this is different than Nike making shoes with child labor overseas in the "global south", etc. That harms children, for profit. Facebook is a for profit organization. This is the rule with organizations like this. If given enough time, size, and lack of shielding, any corporation will eventually cause harm in some way. We seem to have less focus on "Nike whistleblowers" or similar, you…
It's a very different issue. One important difference is that the children being harmed here are American children. Rightly or wrongly, it raises the priority since American parents are seeing their own children harmed.
I don't want to defend Nike, but still, the fact that people are poor enough to send their kids off to factories to make shoes isn't Nike's fault.
But again, very different issue. Worthwhile to think about, but I don't think it should detract from this one.
Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs
#79Now do the same for CNN, Fox News and every other sophisticated media company who have all created Skinner boxes to get more eyeballs. The entire system needs a hard examination.
I suspect the reaction from a lot of companies is going to be to lock down internal documents under a need-to-know security model.
Easier said than done though.
My wife works for a massive company that now makes you classify every email as external, internal, or confidential and after numerous emails, training and constantly calling people out on things, nobody can still figure out the difference (and thus marks everything far less secure than it is), despite it being trivial.
Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs
#80why would you reveal yourself if you don't have guanareteed protection?
Facebook likely knew the identity of the leaker right away. There was little advantage to maintaining the illusion of anonymity at this point.
Correct.
She said that she began thinking about leaving messages for Facebook’s internal security team for when they inevitably reviewed her search activity. On May 17, shortly before 7 p.m., she logged on for the last time and typed her final message into Workplace’s search bar to try to explain her motives.
“I don’t hate Facebook,” she wrote. “I love Facebook. I want to save it.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-whistleblower-frances-...